The #5 Auburn Tigers take on the South Carolina Gamecocks in a matchup between two teams trying to fight their ways back into the SEC title picture.

The Auburn Tigers have been one of the best teams in college football all season. They started off with a 5-0 record that included wins over highly ranked LSU and Kansas State. But then the Tigers were upset on the road against Mississippi State, causing them to fall to 5-1 and knocking them out of the top spot in the SEC title picture. After waiting patiently in a bye week and watching both Mississippi State and Ole Miss jump ahead of them in the polls, the Tigers are ready to get back on track with a brutal 6-game stretch that also includes Ole Miss, Georgia, Texas A&M and of course the Iron Bowl against Alabama. If the Tigers can survive that gauntlet of opponents with 5 or 6 wins, they have a good shot at the SEC title.

The South Carolina Gamecocks have almost predictably struggled against teams they were expected to beat, but got wins over teams they were underdogs against. A win over then-#6 Georgia in the midst of a 3-game winning streak had the team running high before back-t0-back upset losses to Missouri and Kentucky all but ended the season. However, the Gamecocks still have a tie-breaker against division leader Georgia and if they can manage another big upset against Auburn, South Carolina will be back in the SEC East title hunt with 4 not-so-difficult games left on the schedule.

Prediction: Auburn – As much as one would like to believe that Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier can pull off the upset, Auburn has generally played tough games very close to the vest and don’t make mistakes on offense. The same cannot be said of South Carolina, which has struggled in transitioning to a new QB and a defense that doesn’t have the best DE in the nation.